The New York State Historical Association Announces The Results for the 2011 New York State History Day Competition

Submitted by t.kenyon on Mon, 05/02/2011 - 17:33

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COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (05.02.2011) — On Friday, April 29, various venues in Cooperstown were transformed into lively living history museums with the addition of more than 450 middle and high school students and their families from across New York State convening for the New York State History Day competition. Students from 14 regions throughout New York State presented their award-winning work reflecting this year’s National History Day (NHD) theme: “Debate and Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences" in the state finals held at the New York State Historical Association, The Farmers’ Museum, The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and The Otesaga Hotel. The day’s events culminated in an awards ceremony at the Cooperstown High School Auditorium at 5:00 pm.

The state contest, sponsored by the New York State Historical Association, is a year-long history education program that challenges students in grades 6-12 to produce exceptional scholarship on topics in history related to an annual theme. Students from all 14 regions of New York State presented their final projects in the form of dramatic performances, imaginative exhibits, multimedia documentaries, interactive Web sites and scholarly research papers to a panel of judges. First and second place winners in each category advance to National History Day at the University of Maryland, College Park, in June, to compete with history scholars from throughout the country.

The following students placed in the top three in each category; first and second place winners will go on to the national competition:

Junior Group Documentary
First Place: Shannon Gerety,
Kerry Gerety, Hayley Kmack
Elvis the Debate of Rock and Roll
Guilderland, NY, Farnsworth Ms
TEACHER(s) Deborah Escobar
Second Place: Dianna Torres,
Katherine Valle, Alejandra Guevara
Blood versus Bureaucrats: A Conflict between the New York City Public and the Government over the African Burial Ground
Yonkers, NY, School 23
TEACHER(s) Danielle Yanik−Alvarez
Third Place: Kristen Cordaro
Riya Shah
The National Endowment for the Arts Controversies of the late 1980's
West Nyack, NY, Felix V. Festa Ms
TEACHER(s) Paul Clemente

Senior Group Performance
First Place: Madison Deming,
Irina Huang Shivkrish, Lingala Jake Gogats, Elizabeth Kantor
No Vice, No Degradation: The 81 Words That Held Back A Movement &Fueled A Debate
New City, NY, Clarkstown North Shs
TEACHER(s) Jordan Turner, Dina Kalmeta
Second Place: Jack Cahn,
David Cahn
Revolutionizing Human Rights &Diplomacy from Across the Sea: The Internation Struggle to save Soviet Jewry
New York, NY, Stuyvesant Hs
TEACHER(s) Jennifer Suri
Third Place: Olga Zubashko,
Daniel Weiner
The New Deal: Bettering the Life of the Average Citizen
West Nyack, NY, Clarkstown South Shs
TEACHER(s) Laurie Young

New York State History Day is sponsored by the New York State Historical Association. Major funding for the program, made possible by the generous support of Senator James L. Seward, is provided through the New York State Education Department. Additional thanks to The New York Council for the Humanities and The Cooperstown Graduate Program.